This Week(end) in Baseball

Well, the Phillies showed little sense of occasion for my first visit to Citizens Bank Park this past Friday night, getting waxed 10-4 by the abysmal Kansas City Royals. But they did win the other two games of the weekend set, and moved back into first place by percentage points as the Texas Rangers swept Florida. Jim Thome and Jimmy Rollins were the offensive heroes yesterday with two bombs and an inside-the-park homer respectively, and who-dat pitcher Brian Powell worked seven solid innings for the win.

There was bad news from Scranton, however, as Vicente Padilla was pulled from his minor-league rehab start with elbow pain after just 33 pitches. He could be done for the year, a contingency which would really test Ed Wade's appetite for risk-taking and creativity: will he keep trotting out the Powells and Paul Abbotts of the world, take a chance on top prospect Gavin Floyd (currently pitching very well at AA), let Ryan Madson return to the rotation (if he's not hurt, that is), or make a trade for a better-pedigreed veteran arm? I don't know, but I haven't redubbed Wade "Dead Weight" in recognition of his visionary personnel moves...

The ballpark, by the way, is stunning. It was almost dreamlike being there, despite the lousy outcome. Give the Phillies credit; they really did it right, and they took advantage of their late arrival at the new-park dance by appropriating choice elements from the parks in Baltimore ("Ashburn Alley" is akin to the Eutaw Street promenade at Camden Yards), Cleveland, Atlanta, and San Francisco--all wonderful places to watch a game. I do question the decision to leave the visiting bullpen exposed to Phils fans along the outfield concourse, where any angry jerk will be able to dump a beer on John Smoltz's head, try to goad Armando Benitez into a fight, or what have you. Eventually, I think the Phils will have to post security there full-time; it was bad enough with the Royals, not a rival team, in a non-competitive game, that I can't imagine how rough it could get with the Marlins in September. But I can tell my grandkids that I saw Rudy "Traction Action" Seanez in one of his rare, semi-mythical visits in from the Land of the Disabled Pitchers...